THE AUSTRALIAN SLAUGHTERERS.

Free Lance, Volume XVIII, Issue 948, 12 September 1918, Page 6

THE AUSTRALIAN SLAUGHTERERS.

Why Should They Be Favoured?

nnHEKE is a good deal to be said for the protest whibh has been entered by the Freezers' Union against the system under which Australian slaughterers are allowed to come over toi trns country and. take the places of men who have either volunteered or been conscripted for military service, 'x'his imported labour is, it appears, exempted from the New Zealand military laws for six months. Why should tins official favour be extended to men who, m their own country, mostly, voted "iVo, 1 ' and who are deliberately slnrking tiieir duty to Australia and to tiie Jiimpire P The system is most unfair to loyal and patriotic New; Zesulanders engaged in thei freezing works wJLIo have gone to the Front without grumbling and are now i fighting for, amongst other objects, to safeguard. Australia from the horror of German domination, which would most certainly be one of the first results of a German triumph. If there be any difficulty in procuring labour for the freezing works then let the Military Boards grant exemptions to the New 'Zealanders engaged in the industry. But to favour the Australian shirker, as is done under the existing system, ismanifestly as unfair as it is absurd.